


Can I Keep You...?

by AlyKat



Category: Star Trek: Enterprise
Genre: Cross-Posted on Tumblr, M/M, Movie Night, Tumblr Prompt, emotionally stunted Malcolm Reed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-06
Updated: 2019-02-06
Packaged: 2019-10-23 12:11:52
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,169
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17683208
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlyKat/pseuds/AlyKat
Summary: Tumblr prompt: "some trip/malcolm fluff? trip teasing malcolm about something in a cute domestic way...sweet things"Malcolm didn't do 'sappy, sentimental, nonsense'. Films for children and without explosions held little interest for him. And he certainly didn't get emotional over a friendly child ghost.





	Can I Keep You...?

**Author's Note:**

  * For [guardianoffun](https://archiveofourown.org/users/guardianoffun/gifts).



> Originally posted to Tumblr. Unbeta'd, all mistakes are mine. 
> 
> GuardianofFun prompted me to write this a few months ago. Between lack of energy, time, and battles with my own Depression Demons, I never got around to finishing it. Until now. Plus, as she hasn't been feeling good today, I promised to write her something to help make her feel better. Some sweet fluff of Trip/Malcolm. Enjoy it, dear! Hope you feel better soon! 
> 
> Also, I'm sure nearly everyone knows the song _[Casper's Lullaby](https://youtu.be/K8zYrt0c8O4)_ , you just never knew that's what it was called. I provided a link to it so you, too, can sniffle your way through this.

“ _I told you I was a good dancer. Can I keep you?”_

_“Casper...?”  
_

Malcolm sniffled twice and blinked back the tears that were prickling the backs of his eyes. Damn whoever had decided on this blasted film for movie night. Though there weren’t any explosions, and the special effects were questionable at best, and it was certainly aimed more towards a far younger crowd than the men and women of the Starship Enterprise, Malcolm couldn’t help but get caught up in it.

Casper, though he’d died several years earlier in the film, was lonely and wanted a friend. Malcolm could relate to that very much. He too had once been a lonely youth, in search of a friend. He’d been a rather lonely adult, too, for that matter. At least until he’d found Trip. 

As the temporarily alive again Casper leaned in to press a sweet, innocent kiss to Kat’s lips, Malcolm swallowed hard past the lump in his throat and drew in a small, shuddered breath. Bloody emotions and heartwarming films from years past! He’d never even heard of the film until Trip told him about it, and then had scoffed at the idea of such a movie. 

Honestly, a ‘friendly ghost’? A ghost alone was hard enough to believe. But a friendly one befriending a living girl and her widowed father? Out witting two bumbling villains while three ‘wicked uncles’ have a change of heart? Absolute nonsense in Malcolm’s opinion.

Yet there he sat, staring at the screen, the bowl of popcorn he’d been sharing with Trip forgotten. Tears clinging to his eyelashes. How cruel a fate for young Casper! He’d been given a chance to have his wish come true, yet only for a scant hour? Perhaps not even a full hour! To be whole and solid again, to hug Kat and have what was no doubt his first kiss with her, only to turn back into a ghost once the clock struck 10. Surely Dr. Harvey would have taken Casper in if he’d been allowed to stay human! Why give him that small taste of life again only to rip it away from him? 

As the Ghostly Trio broke into an upbeat rendition of the theme song, and the credits began to roll, Malcolm rocked to the side as a shoulder nudged into his own. Glancing to his right with startled eyes, he stared at Trip for a moment before looking away. The teasing sparkle that shown in Trip’s eyes told him that his emotional reaction to a film he’d insisted he had no interest in seeing had been caught. 

“Thought you didn’t like ‘sappy, sentimental, nonsense’, Lieutenant,” teased Trip. 

The lean he always seemed to put on Malcolm’s rank never failing to both aggravate and endear the man to him all the more. He swiped at his eye as discreetly as possible before straightening up in his chair and moving to stand. 

“Childish fancy,” Malcolm muttered in reply, reaching to pick the bowl up off Trip’s lap. “I’m afraid I outgrew that a long time ago.”

“Uh-huh...” Trip folded his arms over his chest and followed Malcolm to the dish return. “Then how come I saw you leaning forward in your seat so many times?”

“Our chairs are hardly comfortable for extended periods of time. I was readjusting.”

“An’ that little gasp an’ ‘oh no’ when Kat’s father died?”

“I’m not completely heartless, Commander. Who would want to see a child orphaned?”

Trip leaned against the wall, arms still folded and a tiny, knowing smirk tugging at the corner of his mouth. “Guess you must’a j’st been restin’ your head on your fingertips when Casper put Dr. Harvey in the Lazarus machine, then? S’pose those tears at the end there were j’st, what? Allergies?”

Turning and squaring his shoulders, Malcolm gave a small nod. “As a matter of fact...” 

A laugh bubbled up out of Trip as he pushed himself off the wall and stepped in closer to Malcolm. “C’mon, Malcolm. Admit it, you got lost in the movie. Even without any explosions  _and_ for bein’ a kid’s film.”

Malcolm shook his head, refusing to give Trip the satisfaction of being right. Again. It was a sweet film, one that tugged on Malcolm’s heart more than he cared to admit to, that didn’t mean he had to let Trip know that. 

The room had cleared save for the two of them, and Malcolm was suddenly very aware of just how intently Trip was watching him. A shiver went through him as Trip’s teasing stare darkened into something different. Something deeper that had Malcolm swallowing past a lump in his throat and struggling not to shift uncomfortably. 

“Computer,” Trip called out, never taking his eyes off Malcolm. “Play  _Casper’s Lullaby.”_

As the gentle, hauntingly beautiful melody drifted out from the speakers, Malcolm felt his throat close off all the more.  _Damn you, Mistah Tuckah!_ He cursed to himself, swiping his tongue across his lips. Trip took another step closer, one eyebrow raised and a challenging look on his face as he held one hand out to Malcolm. 

“Trip...what--”

“C’mon, I’m a good dancer, too, y’know.”

Malcolm’s eyes darted around the room, pink flushing his face. Surely this wasn’t happening. Things like this didn’t happen to Malcolm. And his life was  _far_  from a sentimental, heartwarming tale. 

“Commander, I don’t think --”

“No thinkin’ involved, Lieutenant,” murmured Trip as he took hold of Malcolm’s hip, coaxing him in closer. “Ya think too much as it is. Don’t think fer a change.” 

Trip’s voice was soft and warm, his gentle Southern accent surrounded Malcolm, drawing him in as they swayed in time with the music. 

Another shiver went racing up Malcolm’s spine as warm breath ghosted over his ear. “C’mon, Mal. ‘S j’st us. Loosen up an’ dance with me. J’st this once.”

His heart fluttering, Malcolm sighed heavily. How was he suppose to deny such a heartfelt request? Forcing himself to relax, Malcolm slowly felt himself leaning into Trip’s body more, one arm draped around Trip’s neck, one hand resting above a heart that beat so tenderly. The last of his resolve fading away, like the magic that brought Casper back to life for that short amount of time, Malcolm turned his face into Trip’s neck and simply allowed himself to be moved along. 

The music played on as they swayed back and forth. It was hardly dancing, but Malcolm couldn’t bring himself to point that out. It wasn’t that important. His eyes gently fell shut and a soft, shy smile inched across his face as Trip’s lips brushed over his ear in a tender whisper. 

“Can I keep you?”

The question was sappy and sentimental, completely cliche’ and ridiculous, even for Trip. Malcolm loved him all the more for it. 

Smiling all the more, Malcolm opened his eyes and brushed a soft kiss just under Trip’s ear. Light glinting off a simple band on his finger as he answered back just as gently. 

“For always.”


End file.
